Anse Kerlan

Anse Kerlan

Anse Kerlan is on Praslin's north-west coast, in the Grand Anse Praslin district. OpenStreetMap places Praslin Island Airport here, and Air Seychelles flights from Mahé take 15 minutes.

The beach

The tourism board says Anse Kerlan has been badly affected by rising sea levels and erosion. Rocks have been placed as breakwaters, dividing the beach into smaller sections.

Petite Anse Kerlan, close to Anse Georgette, is a small beach that the tourism board says is visited almost only by guests of Constance Lemuria. It has shallow, calm water with little seaweed, which the board rates safe for families with children, and large rocks at each end of the bay.

Constance Lemuria

The tourism board calls Lemuria at Anse Kerlan a five-star hotel with an 18-hole golf course. The hotel describes the course as the only 18-hole championship golf course in Seychelles.

Nearby

Anse Georgette, on the same stretch of coast, has fine sand framed by granite boulders. The tourism board notes that Constance Lemuria sits between the road and that beach.

The beach

Anse Kerlan is less a single bay than a run of short sandy sections along Praslin's north-west coast, separated by rocks placed to slow erosion. SeyVillas gives the whole stretch as 1,200 m by about 20 m and describes it as usually quiet, with views across to Cousin and Cousine. Castello Beach Hotel, which stands on it, says the beach runs from the village of Amitié to the granite formation at Pointe Ste. Marie, and that many locals spend their weekends here. OpenStreetMap carries the name twice over: the bay point this page uses (node 1413265042) sits at the village end, while the longer beach outline mapped under the name (way 127372664, last edited 30 October 2019) lies about 900 m north, measures about 640 m between its furthest points, and runs past Constance Lemuria.

Erosion

The Ministry of Environment's coastal erosion page says beaches have receded by up to 40 metres, giving Anse Kerlan as its example, with property owners losing land (checked 20 September 2026). SeyVillas calls this probably the worst affected stretch on Praslin. The Seychelles News Agency reported the problem in 2016, planned rock armouring near the airport in 2022 and armouring built to stop sand migration in 2024. State House said on 25 January 2024 that armouring along Amitié Road to Roche Corbiseau, where erosion was destroying the road, was progressing well, and on 13 December 2024 that at Anse Kerlan's Ros Korbizo severe wave activity continues to challenge the existing armouring; a breakwater of about 250 m was then proposed, with reclamation and groynes along the road towards the airport.

In the water

Sources disagree. SeyVillas says an offshore reef gives some protection but the water is deep, waves and currents can be strong, and the beach is unsafe for children. Castello Beach Hotel says the water is quite shallow, that the reef keeps high waves off, that swimming is possible throughout the year and that the beach suits families with children. Both report little seaweed.

There is no lifeguard. Tourism Seychelles' Beach and Sea Safety Guide, second edition, says lifeguards are stationed only at Beau Vallon on Mahé and at Anse Lazio and Côte d'Or on Praslin; it lists a safety warning sign at the boat house at Lemuria Resort, Anse Kerlans, gives 2529976 for the Seychelles Life Guard Services, and names Anse Kerlans as the one place on Praslin where surfing, body boarding and kite surfing are practised (checked 20 September 2026). The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office says the west coast is unsafe during the north-west monsoon, around December to March; the Seychelles Meteorological Authority puts that monsoon at its peak in January and says the sheltered west and north-west beaches are the more pleasant between June and September.

Constance Lemuria says that from October to February its turtle experts take guests out to watch turtles laying their eggs on Grand Anse Kerlan beach. The months are not agreed: Cap Jean Marie Beach Villas, on the beach front, tells Tourism Seychelles that turtles lay there from September to February (listing updated 1 October 2024).

Getting there

All three Praslin bus routes pass behind the beach. OpenStreetMap maps five pairs of SPTC stops along the road, each with a shelter and each tagged as part of routes 61, 62 and 63, the nearest being Anse Kerlan Supermarket about 470 m from the bay point in a straight line. Mont Plaisir is a terminus of all three routes in SPTC's Praslin timetable 202 of November 2021, read through the Internet Archive, which also shows them terminating at the Baie Sainte Anne jetty and Côte d'Or; the timetables SPTC publishes now cover Mahé routes only (checked 20 September 2026). A street-side car park about 750 m away is mapped as open to all, free and unsurfaced (way 1327176753, last edited 22 October 2024). Praslin Island Airport is about 1.7 km away in a straight line and the Baie Sainte Anne jetty about 10.2 km.

Castello Beach Hotel says that at the west end the beach continues behind large granite rocks, where Constance Lemuria stands, and that this section of about 950 steps can be reached on foot along the coastline at low tide, by boat, or through the hotel entrance; Petite Anse Kerlan lies in a small bay behind the Lemuria beach bar. From the mapped beach outline it is about 350 m away in a straight line and Anse Georgette about 860 m.